By: Caitlin Peale

Caitlin Peale — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 15:01:47 +0000

Thanks for the comment, David. We take the point and appreciate your perspective, and agree that the state has often been short-sighted in failing to invest in public goods – from education and social services to needed infrastructure like water and wastewater facilities and transportation. We are grateful for your work to change this lack of vision. In the same vein of fighting for fairness and a realignment of priorities, CLF’s PSNH advocacy is aimed at ending the profoundly unjust subsidies to coal generation created by PSNH’s rate structure. These subsidies perpetuate the quiet but devastating damage to public health – especially to disadvantaged communities like low-income neighborhoods in Manchester – that is caused by PSNH’s power plants. Meanwhile, as in other public arenas, our neighbors have important lessons for us – states like Vermont and Massachusetts are earning the win-win of a cleaner environment and lower energy costs by making aggressive investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy.

By: David Weber

David Weber — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 16:59:34 +0000

I support CLF’s policy orientation and overall culture but occasionally am disappointed in CLF messaging. To say that PSNH is undermining NH’s advantage as a low-cost state in which to do business and raise a family is to implicitly endorse right-wing and therefore anti-environmental talking points. NH is not a low-cost state; it is to some extent a low-tax state, which is not the same thing. It continues to rationalize a tax system that is regressive, inadequate, and increasingly disastrous. It continues to prioritize the avoidance of income taxes or sales taxes over the provision of basic services. It is 50th in support for public higher education; its towns sue the DES and EPA because they receive no help from the state in funding modernization of wastewater treatment plants. Its courts are hobbled. The schools in its low-property-tax-base are underfunded. Its safety net is disintegrating. Its poor pay four times as much in taxes (as a percentage of income) as the rich do. It is heading for more and more pain. It is not helpful to buy into the mythology of Yankee frugality. NH is not frugal; it is penny-wise and pound-foolish and will be more so if it expands gambling and privatizes its prisons. See the web sites of NH Fiscal Policy Institute and Granite State Priorities. (I’m president of the GSP board.)

Comments on: Who Will Clean Up PSNH’s Mess?

By: Caitlin Peale

By: David Weber